Now You See the Real Ricky Jay (or Do You?)

ENLARGE

Ricky Jay inspects a deck of cards from the 1700s at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair on Friday.
Byron Smith for The Wall Street Journal

By

Robert P. Walzer

Updated April 17, 2013 7:52 p.m. ET

Ricky Jay can throw a playing card 90 miles an hour into a watermelon. He's also known to champion fellow eccentric entertainers like Le Petomane, the "master flatulist" of France. Moviegoers may recognize him as a regular presence in the films of David Mamet and Paul Thomas Anderson.

But Mr. Jay is truly famous for his sleight-of-hand. Some of his illusions are so stunning that they leave spectators teary-eyed—out of amazement, or perhaps fear—and the essence of his craft, which he's been studying obsessively for six decades, is enmeshed in secrecy.

So when two filmmakers, Molly Bernstein and Alan Edelstein, approached the conjurer, actor, historian, collector and writer 15 years ago about making a documentary about his life and work, Mr. Jay was reluctant. "His whole life is about secrets and control, and a filmmaker wants to reveal secrets and explore them, so there's a natural difference of agenda there," said Mr. Edelstein.

It took the filmmakers more than a decade to lure their subject into the light, but "Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay," is finally ready for its theatrical premiere on Wednesday at Film Forum, where it will screen for two weeks before a wider release. The documentary provides a riveting look at Mr. Jay's arduous, arcane pursuits through the prism of those who taught and inspired him to be one of the world's great magicians—the kinds of entertainers who populated his 2011 book "Celebrations of Curious Characters": strongmen, cannon-ball catchers, limbless jugglers, con men, and the like.

As a boy in Brooklyn, his first mentor was his grandfather, Max Katz, a serious amateur magician (and professional accountant). Other masters he learned from that appear in the film: Al Flosso, Slydini, Cardini and two men, Charlie Miller and Dai Vernon, whom he sought out in Los Angeles as a young rising magician. "I'm much more interested in lesser-known eccentrics and characters and performers," Mr. Jay said during a recent interview at New York's Antiquarian Book Fair, where he was repeatedly accosted by dealers bearing greetings. "Like Matthew Buchinger, who was born in Germany in 1674, had no arms or legs and yet did magic, and had 14 kids, and made the most extraordinary calligraphy."

As Ms. Bernstein and Mr. Edelstein can attest, issues of trust and discretion are touchstones in his life. "I know people who make a living as card cheats and dice hustlers, and the fact that they're willing to share secrets of the trade with me is terrific," Mr. Jay said. "And when they ask me not to talk about it I don't talk about it. I learned this at a very early age. Honoring these pacts are a defining part of both my professional and my personal life."

The saga of making the film began with Ms. Bernstein, who became an admirer of Mr. Jay after reading his 1986 book, "Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women: Unique, Eccentric and Amazing Entertainers." She started thinking about a documentary after seeing his solo 1994 performance, "Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants," directed by Mr. Mamet at the Second Stage Theatre. "I was completely mesmerized by the show," she said. "I was so taken by his language and his style and his ability to make a small, sophisticated New York audience gasp."

She recommended the show to an illustrator friend, Peter Kuper, who penned a whimsical cartoon, "Waiting for Ricky Jay," while queued up in an unsuccessful attempt to get in. Mr. Kuper parlayed the cartoon into tickets and eventually a friendship with Mr. Jay, and it was through him that Ms. Bernstein contacted Mr. Jay's manager to explore the possibility of a film. The manager declined, saying he was too busy.

Ms. Bernstein and Mr. Edelstein tried again about a year later, this time through Mark Singer, the author of a 1993 profile of Mr. Jay in the New Yorker, and arranged a meeting. Mr. Jay was reticent, having had a bad experience with a BBC film crew. "Certainly I was skeptical at first," he said. "But I met with them a couple of times and I liked them personally. Equally important was the idea of letting it focus on my mentors."

Filming began in 1998 when Mr. Jay reprised his "52 Assistants" show, and it continued in dribs and drabs for several years when there was money, opportunity and time. "It just became part of the fabric of our existence," Ms. Bernstein said. "We started gradually to get to know each other and Ricky started telling us when he was doing interesting things and asked if we wanted to shoot. We kept chipping away at it and as we got to know Ricky better, we got more access."

Their portrait grew richer. They filmed Mr. Jay performing at the Old Vic theater in London in 1999; discussing his collection of antique dice at a Los Angeles bookstore; illuminating 19th-century spirit photography at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; hanging out with his stage crew at the Carnegie Deli. They also researched Mr. Jay's place in the history of magic. They found material in the Smithsonian archives; images of him as a child magician at the Newark Sunday News; and material from periodicals at the Conjuring Arts Research Center in New York. Mr. Jay, too, dug up archival material from his life covering a wide range of activities.

"I'm a lucky guy to be able to do all these different things that I like," he said. "I'm able to be more cavalier than most people about turning down work that I don't like. I work with books, I have a consulting company, I have worked as a curator and an archivist. None of these things I dislike."

Perhaps most important to him, though, is that element of confidence—the "deceptive practice." Mr. Mamet, a longtime friend, said Mr. Jay recently revealed to him one of his great secrets of magic. "He initiated me into this world," Mr. Mamet said. "I was very stunned and very touched. It was a great honor. You want to know what it was?"

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